January 6, 2014

Before I post Christian's email, I thought I'd share the email he received from our Dad today:

 "Well, son, I have to say, the Plan of Salvation, the mortal purposes for which we are here, and the role of the Savior are very preeminent in my mind.  This is because my father, your grandfather, Max S. Burrup, passed away this evening.  He returned to his Heavenly Father, joining his beautiful wonderful bride, my mom, around 8:45 PM tonight.  He had been ill these last couple of days with temperature, a little worsening, and then fairly worse this evening.  I was with Uncle Scott (Dickinson) and we got him to the ER.  In the ER it confirmed he was low on oxygen, etc., he seemed to do well the initial 1+ hours in the ER, then fairly rapid decline over about 7-10 minutes.  There must have been some heart problem that was taxed to the max and "gave out" -- blood pressures went down, pulse went down (usually goes up), and then right before our eyes he stopped breathing.  I chose not to have resuscitation.  We let him go without trying to "rescue" him from being called back to the spirit world.  Anyway, he didn't suffer or linger, and in the end, this is a blessing and tender mercy.  It was a little quick and a little unexpected, for all or most of us, and I think for him.  But I am so happy that he can be with Mom again, and see his parents and brothers and sisters that have passed on before.  I am grateful that he didn't linger with even poorer health, languish in an invalid state, have significant pain, and so on.  But sometimes it is hard to believe that these 54 years, the father of this mortal body that houses my spirit, has "gone the way of all the earth".  His life I remember, revere, respect, and will reconstruct in words and records.  Know that I am doing very well.  I feel at peace.  If you think about it, pray for [all of] us as a family that this be a time of love, respect, unity, understanding, and rejoicing in the Gospel and our testimonies of eternal families and the Plan of Happiness.  I trust that it will be.  We have so much to be grateful for.  I will miss him.  I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me to have been born under his tutelage and example.  I am so thankful he married Mom...."

So that's the big news he received today.  Christian was close to Grandpa and loved him so much.  He's named after him! Christian Max Burrup, my dad even calls him C-max :)  I know the Lord blesses his missionaries and will bless him with peace.  

Now for his wonderfully entertaining and uplifting email.  He's quite the writer, no?

Wow. i dont know where to start....i am sitting in my little cubicle with the computer bawling my eyes. I thought of something.....the sweet baby girl of jon and nicole is probably with grandpa and grandma right now. I feel it. I know this is a blessing. When i read that grandpa had passed away my heart stopped. I wanted so bad to see him again. Hear his voice and see him smile. I am going to miss him dearly. So so so much. But i know how much he has missed grandma and he is in the spirit world with her. I am teaching about the plan of salvation, every aspect everything of this wonderful plan that now i really really need to believe and feel. I feel....I KNOW that the plan of salvation is real and we can be with grandpa and grandma again.

Hang in there dad and cousins and aunts and uncles. Use this time as a time to draw closer to the Savior and strengthen your testimonies in his glorious plan. 

Dad good job in your missionary efforts. It really is pretty easy huh? I hope you are hanging in there. I am praying for you! 

Mom what a tender mercy in the temple at boise as well. Wow. i am so glad you followed that prompting. You were the Lords sent servant in that specific time for that sister in the church. Now that you were an angel you were the lords hands at that specific time. 

So something i expressed to Janae is that i feel like i am at home in the mission now. It is a wonder feeling :) so this week was a little rough, i was frustrated with the language and jospeh left on vacaciones and wont return for more than a month. so we didnt have very much. But this week was full of miracles. First....yesterday at church none of our investgadores or people we invited came but 5 people came and a 6 and menos acitvo later because of the members! They came with families! This week we are chalk full with citas! We can see the hand of the Lord in san borja it is glorious. So we are working alot con the miembros of the ward and so we had the list and so i thought we had visited everyone on this street and we were walking away but i felt prompted to check the list again so i did and saw that we missed a family. So i told elder hernandez and so we went. This women is courageous. Her husband has a duro heart, just so hard like a rock. He doesn't want the missionaries in the house so the hermana has a seperate part outside with couches and everything for people of the church. We were sent there to comfort her and help  her. She explains to us her problems and sadnesses and Elder Hernandez made a promise in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that if she were to do a couple things, fhe. prayer. scriptures that the heart of her husband and family would be softened. The spirit was so so so strong. It was beautiful. We have been blessed with the hand of the Lord. We are seeing miracles and the fruits of our labors. At church we called out of our class and the hermano nos dijo "i am a menos active and want to reunite with the church and my daughter wants to be baptized." What a miracle. Another experience with visiting a family, we went and her sister was there, she isnt a member, but she told us that this past week her husbands leg got amputated. We taught her a little and agian promised as representatives of jesus christ. The spirit was so strong. I feel good in the mission. More natrual and the spanish is coming along :)

Jon and nicole, excited to see pictures of your baby girl next week! I want lots of pictures and dont forget to tell me her name :) I am praying for you guys!

I'll be praying for dad and the family too. Have hope in the Plan 

Con carino y amor

Hurrah por Israel

Elder Burrup

P.S. Thanks for the letters Marissa, Annalise, and Monika. Monika i am stoked that you finally got your call! Boise Idaho. You were right i started laughing...alot tehe. Congrats :)